Lilyfield Cakes

56 AM
photo by Liane Veronika bergen
www.winnipegwomen.net
How a home-based baking business proved
the recipe for Heather Stewart’s success.
by Carly Peters
september/october 2008 Winnipeg Women
53
Lilyfield Cakes at the
2008 Academy Awards Get
Ready for the Red Carpet Suite
at the Luxe Hotel
in Beverly Hills...
A
picture perfect, miniature chocolate cake,
filled with real butter cream icing, wrapped
in clear paper and tied with a light pink
ribbon, sits in front of Heather Stewart, co-founder
and owner of Winnipeg-based Lilyfield Cakes. It
looks almost too good to eat, but she’ll have none
of that.
“You have to try it now. I want to see your face
when you taste it,” she beams.
This single-serve variation of her classic cake is
the latest offering in her widely acclaimed line of
divine desserts that has made her Winnipeg-based
company a confectionary celebrity.
“The cake has always been organic,” explains
Stewart. “That’s why it tastes so good, all the
ingredients are real.”
That’s not only the appeal of Stewart’s product,
but her personality as well. Seeing success in
Hollywood, being invited to A-list events and
having a celebrity clientele have not changed the
bubbly entrepreneur, or her vision, from when she
started her business eight years ago.
Stewart began the company in 2000 with good
friend Deidre Herosian. The two women had a very
personal connection that drew them together
before they became business partners—both of
their sons were born with missing limbs. As their
friendship developed both women realized they
shared a love of throwing parties and had a knack
for not just creating gifts, but making the gift an
entire experience through presentation. At the
prompting of friends who’d been to many of the
ladies well-planned soirées, they developed a
signature “party in a box”.
Stewart says they spent a good year of trial
and error perfecting the recipe (at least 60 tries in
Herosian’s kitchen), designing the box and picking
materials before even thinking about introducing
the product to the public.
The Result - A Gift to the Senses
The cake, in Original Country Vanilla, French
Chocolate, English Toffee or Exotic Coconut, is a
dense, rich and moist fancy that can’t be replicated,
even by your baba’s family recipe. This February,
High Tea Bakery took over the actual baking of the
cakes to help keep up with the product’s demand.
“They say they actually crave my chocolate
cake. That’s high praise coming from them,” laughs
Stewart.
But, it’s truly the handmade hat boxes that
house the cakes, crafted from lavish fabrics and
topped with unique adornments, that allow
Stewart’s whimsy and panache to materialize.
Inspired by music, classic movies and the people
that fill her life, she gives each box an aura of
its own. Miss Desmond, made of silver taffeta,
black velvet polka dots and embellished with a
feather boa, would definitely be a showstopper on
Sunset Boulevard, while the technicolour tweed
with purple parrot tulips is meant to covey the
personality of her assistant—Sassie Cassie.
With the visual and taste senses taken care
of, Lilyfield adds to the sensory experience with
lightly fragranced tissue, carefully selected fresh
cut flowers and a silver charm (a signature item)
nestled inside with the cake.
While products range between $150 and $250,
it’s obvious that the art of something being handmade makes them priceless and promotable.
Their first year out, Lilyfield was featured in
several prominent Canadian publications, including
Canadian House & Home and Reader’s Digest, but
their big break came when they were highlighted
in the Valentine’s Day issue of Lucky magazine,
a pop publication in the U.S. Other publications
soon followed suit—everyone from Flare to People
Magazine to The New York Times were singing
the sweet praises of Lilyfield Cakes. The calls from
Tinseltown started coming in as well.
Stewart states one of her first real celeb
highlights was on Mother’s Day when Joan and
Melissa Rivers devoted almost an entire episode of
their TV Guide channel show to Lilyfield Cakes.
“That year we had a cake out called ‘Joan’, which
was in fact named after Deidre’s aunt, but Joan
doesn’t need to know that,” she laughs.
Don’t let those skinny celebs fool you, they like
their sweets too. Lilyfield Cakes has served a slice to
the likes of Halle Berry, Virginia Madsen, Jeff Beck,
Ben Stiller and his wife Christine Taylor, Angela
Bassett and Trace Atkins.
With the majority of orders coming from
California, it’s no surprise that Stewart has been
getting invites to some of the hottest L.A. events.
This year she served up some classic chocolate
cake, along with her new line of shortbread, at the
Academy Awards Get Ready for the Red Carpet
Suite at the Luxe Hotel in Beverly Hills. The Farrelly
brothers, Joan Collins, Shawn Southwic (Larry
King’s wife) and Allison Janney all dabbled in her
delectables while getting dolled up for the 2008
awards show.
Stewart was also the icing on the cake at the
2008 Grammy Foundation’s annual signature Starry
Night gala, where she rubbed shoulders with Tom
Photos top to bottom:
• Heather with actress Virginia
Madsen.
• The Farrelly Brothers ham it up.
• The West Wing’s Allison Janney.
• Cheryl Hines from TV’s Curb Your
Enthusiasm.
• Film and television actress Tia
Carrere.
• This hairpin on Heather’s Bel-Air
cake is worth a cool $1 million.
54
Winnipeg Women september/october 2008
www.winnipegwomen.net
Jones, David Foster, Katharine McPhee and Yoko
Ono.
“I’ve never been to a more spectacular event,”
she muses. “I took my son Jeff with me and he got
to meet Jeff [Lynne] from E.L.O. They loved each
others shoes. He thought it was so amazing.”
Stewart was even a little starstruck herself when
she got to meet one of her favorite music icons,
Burt Bacharach. “He was very charismatic and he
had sparkly blue eyes,” she quips. “But, everyone is
so nice, and they all wish each other well.”
She nonchalantly, but very genuinely, adds
she’s going to skip the VH1 Music Awards and
the Emmy’s this year, but will probably go to the
Golden Globes.
Home Sweet Home
Stewart admits the call of New York or L.A. is
always there, but says she really doesn’t anticipate
leaving Winnipeg to expand the business.
“I love this city. There are a lot of great people
and opportunities here,” explains Stewart. “And, of
course, my family is here. You can’t replace that.”
Yet, with all the buzz in Tinseltown, Stewart and
her chic confections are still relatively unknown in
Winnipeg.
“I think because we don’t advertise and don’t
have a storefront, everything’s online, people here
don’t know about the product,” she says. “But that
gives me great hope because it means there’s room
for growth here.”
Speaking of growth, Stewart has begun
expanding her line into one of the hottest
categories in both L.A. and Winnipeg—going
green. The Isca collection features a hat box made
from recycled chipboard, tissue, vegetable dyes
and hemp, topped with natural and decorative
chicken feathers. This rustic gift was inspired by
the First Nations traditions of Manitoba, and one of
Stewart’s best friends from the past.
“Isca was one of my best friends in junior high. I
always thought she had such a beautiful name, and
she told me it meant ‘dream’ in Cree,” she explains.
“So it only seemed fitting being from Manitoba and
having an aboriginal influence in our lives that it be
called that.”
In the aboriginal tradition of giving back to
the earth, with every Isca package sold a white
pine tree will be planted through the Billion Tree
Campaign and a thank you card will be sent to
the purchaser in honour of the tree planting from
the Manitoba Forestry Association. The line also
includes a traditional shortbread, delicately placed
in a 100 per cent biodegradable box. The unique
part is once the treats are gone, the seed paper box
can be placed in flowerbeds or flower pots and wild
flowers will abundantly bloom.
“I think it’s beautiful that even if the box gets
thrown into a landfill, a flower will grow from it,”
states Stewart.
and that you think is fashionable. They’ll let you know
whether the product is unique or trendy enough to
make it. Then, even if things are tough, just don’t quit.”
She also recommends giving back as much as
you take. Stewart donates a portion of all proceeds
to The Rehabilitation Centre for Children, the charity
that provided prosthetic limbs for both founder’s
sons. She also helps organize Fashion Meets Music,
a successful event that helps the Centre generate
funds for equipment and programs to help children
with special needs.
With her heart in her hometown, and her stamp
on a well sought-after product, Stewart has found
the recipe for her own success.
And, by the way, the miniature cake was
sensational. j
Back in 2001, Winnipeg Women
spotted Heather and then
partner Deidre Herosian as notable
up-and-comers in a feature
on online businesses.
Visit www.lilyfieldcakes.com.
Pay it Forward
How to grow a business is something that
Stewart has been asked about many times from
other budding entrepreneurs.
“We’ve gotten a lot of e-mails from people
saying, ‘I have this great product, how do I begin to
market it?’,” she explains. “My first piece of advice
is always ask the opinion of someone you respect
www.winnipegwomen.net
september/october 2008 Winnipeg Women
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